Called the Cubix, it’s the latest in large square balers from the German farm equipment manufacturer, winning a gold Innovation Award at Agritechnica last November.

So what makes it special?

The driveline on the Cubix is integrated into the frame to deliver direct power flow to the baler. Along with a pair of 202 kilogram flywheels, this helps put the Cubix’s output as high as 70 tonnes per hour in the field.

“For the starting process, you do not need a big tractor,” Daniel Moersch, Claas’s product manager for square balers, said at Agritechnica 2025 in Hanover, Germany.

By engaging only one flywheel at a time, the Cubix is also easier and more efficient to start.

Once the first flywheel reaches 1,650 r.p.m., the second flywheel engages. Once the speed of both flywheels match, a pair of clutches on each side of the baler kick in to get the rotor operational.

While a 250-horsepower tractor gets the Cubix running and baling hay in the field, Moersch said an operator won’t reach the high throughput the Cubix is capable of with that amount of horsepower. For that, he recommended tractors have 400 h.p. or higher.

The Cubix also uses a double loop knot design to secure bales. This helps eliminate twine waste and increases tensile strength compared with other bale knot designs.

Its six-knotter system also reduces the amount of twine needed and the time it takes to change twine.

Artificial intelligence has been incorporated into the Cubix’s design when it comes to controlling bale density.

AI-supported software also assists in maintaining target ranges of density, throughput and bale length.

If an overload is detected during operation, the Cubix automatically decouples the rotor and pick-up before a blockage can occur.

At this stage in its design, the Cubix requires a tractor to operate in the field, but future designs may not require this.

“We are looking at an all-automatic driving baler,” said Moersch.

“For the moment, we are within the tractor implement system.”

Moersch said Claas plans to have a pre-series launch of the Cubix baler in 2027 with a complete launch sometime in 2028.

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The brand’s current offering now includes a digital pairing of its 8S and 9S tractors to the LB Series large square Hesston by Massey Ferguson balers.

It improves tractor and implement co-ordination and simplifies processes for the operator.

WHY IT MATTERS: A system that allows helpful dialogue between a towed machine and a towing tractor may improve not just the efficiency of both units but the quality of the end commodity.

TIM (Tractor and Implement Management) allows a Hesston by Massey Ferguson large square baler to control the speed of an 8S or 9S tractor to maximize baler output and at the same time improve bale quality.

At the Commodity Classic farm show in Texas, the brand announced new 8S and 9S tractors will soon be available for order directly from the factory with TIM.

“The other exciting thing we’ve been launching at this show is Tractor and Implement Management for our 8S and 9S tractors,” says Derek Reusser, senior marketing manager for high horsepower tractors with Massey Ferguson.

“It’s new for 2026. It’s really all about facing challenges our farmers are facing with skilled operators.

“It really allows the implement to dictate what the tractor does. When we think about large square baling specifically, based on your flake count target, it will change the operating speed of the tractor.”

A sensor on the knotter trip wheel sends information to the tractor to control its speed, allowing it to keep feeding material into the baler at an even rate, which helps produce consistent bales.

“TIM Drive is what it’s called,” says Reusser.

“The knotter trip wheel is essentially counting your flakes. That flake count is communicated back to the tractor. We’re giving that system the capability to change the speed of the tractor based upon what it’s measuring.

“The flake size is really what farmers are looking at. For an eight-foot bale, you want about a 2.4-, 2.5-inch flake size to deliver that consistent length. Usually farmers are looking for about 40 flakes on an eight-foot bale.”

Added Jessica Williamson, marketing manager for hay and forage with Massey Ferguson: “All of our LB Series large round balers already come pre-equipped with TIM … so it’s not an add-on for our customers. All of them are ready to be hooked to a tractor with TIM, regardless of baler size from our 3 x 3 up to our 4 x 4. It comes already equipped with TIM.”

‘Pretty significant’

Williamson says Agco did field trials using TIM to see what impact it had on bale production. The results demonstrated a significant improvement, she claims.

“We wanted to see the overall improvement in bale consistency when implementing TIM versus not. We looked at having a mid- or lower-level operator and how it would improve overall bale consistency. Does this open up the tractor seat to someone with a lower level of skill?

“A mid-level operator got a 225 per cent overall improvement from bale to bale. He got about a two-inch variability in overall bale length.

“We’re improving flake count and overall bale length. Probably the most significant improvement we got was overall bale weight. In dry straw, we saw an 80 pound overall bale-to-bale improvement by implementing TIM. Eighty lb. in very dry straw is pretty significant.”

The system also has a use on Hesston by Massey Ferguson RB Series round balers. It stops the tractor when the chamber is full and allows the bale to tie and eject. All the operator has to do is start the tractor again.

For producers who already have an 8S or 9S tractor, the TIM software can be downloaded and installed on existing models. LB Series large balers have been equipped with TIM from the factory for the last two model years.

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“We are extremely disappointed by PMRA’s decision and ask them to reconsider this decision,” David Marit, Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister, said in a news release.

“We need a federal regulatory system that considers economic impacts felt by producers and the realities on the ground.”

Alberta’s Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson, in a separate statement, said he’s also “deeply disappointed” in the PMRA’s decision and called on the PMRA to reinstate the product’s use for farmers.

The annual risk to hay and native pastures from RGS runs above $800 million and “the risk of this exploding RGS population is detrimental to farms and ranches across the country,” he said.

On Oct. 1, 2025, Saskatchewan Agriculture partnered with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation to submit an emergency use request for two per cent liquid strychnine for management of RGS.

The rodent has been growing in population for the last few years and has shown no sign of slowing down.

The submission was a response to concerns from producers and industry about the on-farm efficacy of other registered products for the control of the pest, following the ban of strychnine in March 2023.

Heath MacDonald, federal agriculture minister, had made a verbal promise to the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities in October to support any emergency use applications. The PMRA, however, is not under the jurisdiction of the agriculture ministry.

The Saskatchewan government said it had included “robust, science-based and strengthened mitigation measures” in its proposal.

However, the PMRA said the methods used to prove necessity of strychnine were insuffient to mitigate an acceptable level of risk, which prompted the denial of emergency use.

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The changes affect both the province’s crop insurance program and wildlife damage compensation, with updates designed to better reflect current farming realities across the province.

High participation

Risk management tools are more important than ever as producers contend with tighter margins and increasingly unpredictable weather, Kostyshyn said.

“Over 90 per cent of Manitoba’s annual crop acres are enrolled in ag insurance… The risk of loss of crops due to unpredictability is more important than ever.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Changes to agriculture insurance signal broader coverage and fewer blind spots.

Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation expects to provide $4.3 billion in coverage on 9.8 million crop acres in 2026 as weather extremes continue to affect regions throughout Manitoba in different ways, from flooding to droughts.

New forage pilot

Among the changes announced is a new pilot program aimed at encouraging sustainable forage production. The Forage Advantage Pilot Program, announced in November, will offer farmers a 15 per cent discount on forage establishment insurance premiums for growing perennial forage crops on designated land types.

The province is also expanding insurance coverage to include meadow fescue grown for seed, following years of discussions with commodity groups, Kostyshyn said.

Wildlife coverage expanded

Manitoba is also making a major update by expanding its wildlife damage compensation program to cover additional species and different kinds of losses.

“For 2026 crop year, farmers will be able to claim for crop damage due to blackbirds, raccoons, damage to livestock caused by vultures, eagles, hawks, ravens and other bird species,” Kostyshyn said.

KAP applauds changes

The updates to this year’s crop insurance and wildlife damage compensation programs reflect the growing risks farmers face, said Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) President Jill Verwey.

“Expanding coverage, updating values, and piloting incentives like the forage advantage program are positive steps.”

KAP will continue to work with the province to help inform and shape practical solutions for Manitoba farmers, Verwey added.

Manitoba Ag Days, marking its 49th anniversary, will be held from Jan. 20 to 22 in Brandon. The event is expected to attract producers, exhibitors, and agricultural businesses from throughout the Prairie region. For more coverage of the show, visit the Manitoba Co-operator’s Ag Days page.

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Agriculture minister David Marit, while speaking at the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference in Saskatoon Jan. 21., announced $4.5 million in livestock and forage research and renewed $3.9 million to the Prairie Swine Centre and the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization.

The $4.5 million in research is a joint federal-provinical investment between the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership and the Agriculture Development Fund. It will support 25 new projects, including research for ergot detection in feed and cattle biomarkers for Johne’s disease.

In total, there will be:

• seven beef projects;
• one beef and dairy;
• five poultry;
• two sheep;
• two swine;
• one multiple species; and
• six forage.

The projects were chosen by the ADF advisory committee, comprising academia, industry officials and producers.

“It’s my understanding they’ll get two or three hundred different applications on research and go through them all and really evaluate what are important in Saskatchewan farms and ranchers,” said Marit.

“What I really like about it really removes it from the political side, and it really does address what the industry is really looking for and is wanting.”

Another $1.3 million was contributed by 13 industry partners:

• Alberta Beef Producers
• Alfalfa Seed Commission of Alberta
• Canadian Poultry Research Council
• Manitoba Forage Seed Association
• Results Driven Agricultural Research (Alberta)
• Saskatchewan Alfalfa Seed Producers Development Commission
• Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission
• Saskatchewan Cattle Association
• Saskatchewan Chicken Industry Development Fund
• Saskatchewan Forage Seed Development Commission
• Saskatchewan Pork Development Board
• Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board
• Western Dairy Research Collaboration

The funding to VIDO will help the organization communicate with producers and continue research projects such as bovine tuberculosis vaccine and cache valley disease.

For the swine centre, the focus will continue on animal nutrition, pathology and addressing diseases such as African swine fever and porcine epidemic diarrhea. It is currently working with the government to commercialize the PED rapid test kit it has developed.

Improvements to forage insurance

Marit also announced that the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp.’s satellite forage insurance program will be available this year.

“Satellite forage insurance is replacing the forage rainfall insurance program,” he said.

“FRIP is no longer available, and all existing FRIP customers will be automatically enrolled into the satellite forage insurance program.”

Claims and premiums will be localized at the township level, and producer information packages will be available in mid to late February, including coverage options and premiums.

Establishment of the program follows the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp.’s pilot that was conducted to assess its effectiveness. It provides greater, more accurate rainfall and soil moisture information for producers and crop insurance.

Jolen Shea, vice-chair of the Saskatchewan Cattle Association, was part of the pilot program at her ranch near Kindersley.

“I just found it to be a lot more accurate for what was actually happening on my ranch,” she said.

“The soil moisture measures on a kilometre by kilometre scale, so a rain event that actually happened on my ranch, as opposed to just at the weather station that’s about 20 km away.”

It includes an easy-to-use online portal to access the local data and was “very informative.” Shea said she would often go onto the portal the next day and see accurate, immediate soil moisture data.

The data also accounted for the highs and lows in weather, as well as for heavy wind that sucks out moisture.

“It seems like we’re moving in the right direction,” she said.

“So I really hope it takes away some of those issues and some of that variability that came with selecting weather stations and … playing the lottery game.”

Opening the Chinese market

Those attending the conference were also pleased with Canada and China’s recent trade agreement, including provisions to re-open China to Canadian beef.

JBS recently announced it will soon be sending its first shipment to China.

“I didn’t realize the number was that big … before China put the ban on,” Marit said.

“We were around $200 million worth of beef going into China.… To see that back open, it just gives our producers another market.”

He expects the beef market to increase in the same that the pea market responded following the reduction of pea tariffs — not dramatically but by small and steady amounts.

SCA chair Chad Ross agreed, saying this is “huge” for Saskatchewan and Canadian beef producers, especially with the added value that the Chinese market brings.

“Commonly they would use the offals and the lower end cuts that we don’t like to eat here in Saskatchewan and Canada,” he said.

“So that’s really good for us, but they also have an appetite for the high marbling tasty cuts as well. So there’s a little bit of both.”

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Their gestation and even lactation diets are made up of nearly all forages. Fortunately, nitrate testing of forage samples is not expensive, and if a winter feed inventory is discovered to contain toxic levels of nitrates, effective measures can be taken to correct beef herd feeding programs that reduce most nitrate threats.

I was taught a long time ago that nitrates accumulated in many types of forages usually caused by bad weather, despite a small number of forages that are known as good weather high-nitrate accumulators. Some of those damaging weather conditions/forage combinations are as follows:

• Hailed cornfields, alfalfa and oat crops.
• Drought overshadowing a cornfield.
• Cool, cloudy and wet growing season in alfalfa and other legume crops.
• Early frost in immature cornfields, oats, alfalfa and other legumes.
• Excessive wind that blows over corn plants and causes severe lodging in cereals.

When sunny weather prevails between timely rain showers, nitrates and other nitrogen compounds are naturally taken up by the plants’ roots and transported through the stems and finally to the leaves.

Photosynthesis converts these nitrates into leaf protein. However, when one of the above bad weather conditions interferes with nature, nitrates have literally nowhere to go and tend to accumulate to toxic levels in the lower portion of the plant.

Ironically, nitrates do not cause nitrate poisoning in beef cows.

That’s because the real culprit is an intermediate compound, nitrite. When cow herds consume forages with natural low levels of nitrates, the ruminal microbes break down this nitrate into ammonia, which is safely incorporated back into bacterial protein. In contrast, excessive forage nitrates overwhelm the microorganism’s capacity to process the nitrates into ammonia, and a nitrite pool is formed.

These nitrites are absorbed across the rumen wall into the bloodstream, where they bind with the oxygen-carrying compound hemoglobin, present in cow’s red blood cells. Unlike hemoglobin, methemoglobin cannot carry oxygen in the blood. As a result, the oxygen-carrying-capacity of the cow’s blood quickly diminishes to the point where the tissues of a poisoned cow suffocate to death.

All nitrate-suspected forage (such as a hailed-out barley crop or drought-stricken corn field) should be tested before feeding to cattle as the best assurance for safety. Producers should collect samples in the field and then collect another set of samples once the crop is harvested. Send in all samples into a reputable laboratory and request a common nitrate test, which should cost no more than $20 per forage sample. It is also recommended that water samples be collected and tested for nitrates too.

A routine laboratory printout shows forages and other feeds analyzed for nitrate content are commonly reported as nitrate (NO₃) or nitrate nitrogen (NO₃N).

Research has proved that mature cattle and replacement heifers can safely consume a total diet containing nitrates that are below 0.5 per cent NO₃, or, expressed another way, below 0.12 per cent NO₃N on a dry matter basis.

Blending down

I believe that if overwinter forages are sampled and the results show that they contain toxic nitrate levels for the cow herd, it is a good idea to grind the contaminated forage such as hay and dilute it with other clean hays, straw and silage.

This process often brings the level of nitrates to acceptable safe limits, particularly in a TMR mixer. Note that the alternative of feeding whole high-nitrate bales alternated with low-nitrate bales is not recommended.

Last winter, I dealt with a 250-beef cow-calf operation that tested an overwinter supply of hailed alfalfa-grass hay bales that contained 0.70 per cent NO₃ (on a dry matter intake (DMI) basis). In order to safely feed it, we diluted it down to under 0.5 per cent NO₃ (on a DMI basis) by putting a reformulated TMR diet together.

TABLE: A ration formulated to reduce the impact of high-nitrate forages in a beef cow diet. Source: Peter Vitti

Actual calculated NO₃ level of this diet was 0.46 per cent (DMI basis). The producer fed this overwintering diet, when his cow herd was brought home in late October until the start of the calving season in February. Then a couple of pounds of barley were fed to each fresh cow. No problems associated with the nitrate-contaminated hay appeared.

This story is a good testimonial that feeding high-nitrate forages to overwintering beef cows can be done. This means suspect forages should be tested for nitrate content. If its nitrate content comes back and it cannot be safely fed, dilute it to a safe feeding level with low-nitrate forages in a well-balanced overwintering beef cow diet.

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In October, one of the first examples of the new Jaguars to arrive in Canada made its debut at the GenAg Claas dealership at Steinbach, Man.

“It’s all new this year,” says Terry Siebert, the company’s regional product supervisor for Canada.

“It was in prototyping. It takes roughly 10 years from (conceiving) the idea to bring it to production. It’s a bigger, heavier design for customers who are demanding more throughput in the field.”

The new line consists of four models in the 850- to 1,110-horsepower range. All of them get that power from a 24.2-litre, V-12 MAN diesel engine, which is mated to a two-speed hydrostatic transmission.

“That’s been our engine for higher horsepower in these for many years,” Siebert adds.

All four of the new models use a 35.8-inch (910 mm) wide cylinder that has a 24.8-inch (630 mm) diameter. Claas claims it’s the largest in the industry at the moment.

“That gives us way more capacity,” says Seibert.

“We’ve increased the corn cracker rollers to 310 millimetres, 12.5 inches, in diameter to get more throughput.”

A hydraulic pre-compression system in the feeder helps boost throughput while allowing for more uniform chop quality.

“Our new V-Flex knife drum provides more configurations to give you different chop lengths and quality,” adds Siebert.

The 1000 Series get a completely redesigned cab with a lower noise level than on previous models. It has a larger windshield for better visibility, and an optional joystick steering control is available.

To better deal with the dusty field conditions typical when ensiling, the Jaguars get a dynamic cooling system that continuously clears the radiator screen to help keep the big MAN diesel from overheating.

The Cemos system can adjust ground speed to maintain a consistent pre-set engine r.p.m., adapting to changing field conditions. The Cemos Auto Crop Flow feature prevents overloading.

As well as a new pick-up header, the new forage harvesters can be matched with a 30- or 35-foot Orbis cutting header.

The Auto Contour feature allows for automated ground adaptation. Three sensors monitor the terrain and adjust the header’s pre-programmed working height accordingly. The Orbis 10500 header model is also equipped with actively controlled stabilizer wheels, which adds additional protection from irregular field conditions.

The discharge chute can swivel up to 225 degrees and be raised up to a high of just over 21 feet (6.6 metres).

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A new course by the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association delves into all these components and more.

“The High-Performance Forage course will be available early in 2026 to producers, agronomists and technical teams interested in improving the quality of Canadian forage available for market both domestically and internationally,” according to Kaylee Healy, the CFGA’s communications and knowledge technology transfer logistics manager.

The course covers a range of topics designed to give participants in-depth knowledge on the different aspects of growing high-performance forage across Canada, including examining regional challenges.

READ MORE:

• Grow forages, starve weeds
• Short- and long-term thoughts on forage management
• Lessons learned growing forage mixtures for beef production

This 12-module course is designed for producers who are already growing forage and who are ready to take their product to the next level to take advantage of existing and new markets. Participants can expect to walk away with an in-depth understanding of forage production and practical next steps to improve the quality of forage produced by their operations.

The course is being developed with the help of forage specialist Dan Undersander from the University of Wisconsin, who brings knowledge of more than five decades of advancing forage production.

His expertise spans all aspects of forage management, including production and harvesting methods for hay, haylage, baleage and silage, as well as forage analysis and grazing. His work is supported by other subject matter experts from across Canada and the United States.

“We’ve been building this information for the last three years with Dr. Undersander,” Healy said.

“It’s building on a series of workshops held back in the early 2000s. They were in-person workshops geared towards agronomists and technical experts in forage to help develop higher-quality forage across Canada.”

What’s in the course?

The course takes a ground-up approach, starting with planning growing systems, defining the rations and yield potential. Planning the system helps identify goals, determine labour and management costs and determine crop goals. It is the foundation for the rest of the course and includes elements to help producers track and assess performance.

It’s important to understand the seed mix, including seed genetics, which will grow best in a producer’s region based on climate, soil fertility and other growing conditions.

The module also looks at seeding rates and seeding strategies.

Fertility is an important component of growing quality forage. It begins with understanding the nutrients and density required to match the seed selection made.

Emphasis on soil testing illustrates the need to understand soil pH and existing nutrients, plus soil additives including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, calcium and magnesium. This module also explores the use of liquid and solid manure and touches on the impact of salinity.

Seed management looks at different tillage systems designed to facilitate proper seed placement and other seedbed preparation considerations, while weed control covers topics such as assessing weed pressures and challenges. It specifically looks at when weeds cause a problem, how to manage weeds through pre-seeding and post-seeding, mechanical needs for weed control and when spraying may be required.

Disease and pest management dives into understanding the pressures that these problems place on crops. The module looks at how to identify problems and manage them.

The course offers a diverse look at harvesting and harvest systems, beginning with targeted harvesting time. This is a natural segue into matching forage quality to animal requirements and targeting moisture levels at harvest.

The harvest module also looks at minimizing field losses, selecting the best mower for your operation, the use of conditioning systems, racking, preservation and making baleage.

Making forage is only part of the equation. The course also features modules on storage including packing density, bunk filling rates and other storage considerations to minimize loss.

Producers feeding out forage will appreciate the module on feed-out management, which touches on topics such as maintaining a fresh bunk face, designing storage systems and engaging a nutritionist. It closes with tracking forage quality and building rations.

As the course winds down, participants will gain a better understanding of tracking and performance, including what records to keep, why producers should keep them and how to inventory quantity and quality in storage.

The initial plan, the tracking and the records help producers better understand the cost of production for an operation. Producers walk away from training with a template to develop the cost of production for their own operation, looking at the cost of harvest and storage losses and the overall cost of forage production.

The course closes with discussion on sustainable management, greenhouse gas impacts and management strategies to help producers with soil carbon sequestering and determining manure storage and application methods for their operations.

Producers will complete training with a plan on how they can improve the quality of forage they produce.

“The course presents information using a combination of written and video materials and provides resources and action items so producers can take the techniques and strategies outlined in the material and apply them to their farm,” Healy said.

Why now?

The CFGA has been working with Undersander and other experts for several years to create this training series based on the demand from producers and extension specialists to improve the quality of forage produced in Canada. It has been long recognized that forages are essential to maintaining the health of cropping systems in addition to being an important crop on its own.

Growers face a number of challenges regionally, including disease, pests, drought, excessive moisture and varying rates of soil fertility.

A pilot three-day workshop offered this past March in Manitoba underlined the desire for knowledge and the need to build new supports and connections for growers.

“With experts planning retirement or moving into other roles, the CFGA recognized the opportunity to capture this knowledge now and assist with transferring it to the next generation of producers, agronomists and technicians who are looking to improve Canadian forage,” Healy said.

“This free online course will be available through the CFGA’s learning management system in both English and French early in 2026.”

The new High-Performance Forage course joins other online educational opportunities provided by the CFGA, including Advanced Grazing Systems with sub-courses on dairy and brown soil zones.

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Cover crops offer a lot on paper, but timing remains a major roadblock for Prairie farmers. Recent trials done through Manitoba’s Diversification Centres suggest there may be a workaround — at least for wheat.

Jessica Frey, an applied research technician with the Parkland Crop Diversification Foundation and a University of Manitoba masters student, led a multi-site project looking at cover-cropping legumes with spring wheat. The goal wasn’t to produce a lush forage stand, but simply to get legumes established early and growing alongside a cash crop without compromising yield.

Why it matters: Getting cover crops to fit better into the Prairie growing season could help farmers build soil without sacrificing productivity.

“We’re not going for massive gangbusters growth in that stage,” she told farmers during a field day at the Prairies East Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Diversification Centre at Arborg, Man. “We just want to see that the cover crop is there. That is the goal.”

Solving a Prairie problem

Frey pointed to a 2020 survey of 281 Prairie farmers that found 71 per cent reported benefits from cover cropping — from improved soil health and biodiversity to less erosion and a reduced need for fertilizers and pesticides. But getting them established remains the major challenge. In fact, that same study said the top two reasons farmers are reluctant to plant cover crops are the short shoulder season and limited moisture in the fall.

“We have a short growing season,” Frey said. “We’re sometimes working with 90 frost-free days. We can’t count on that fall window to get a cover crop in the ground after our first harvest.”

Seeding the cover crop at the same time as the wheat is meant to solve that. Instead of waiting for conditions that might never come, the legumes get heat and moisture during the one part of the season Prairie farmers can count on.

In Frey’s trials, she adjusted the seeding rates to give the legumes a fighting chance. The wheat was seeded toward the lower end of the recommended rate, while the cover crops were seeded at the higher end of the recommended rate to compensate for their deeper placement in the same row.

“That gives the cover crops access to early season heat and moisture,” she said.

The cover crop treatments included four legumes — alfalfa, red clover, sweet clover and white clover — plus a non-legume cover crop control. A wheat-only plot served as the main control for comparison. This allowed the research team to track both legume establishment and any agronomic impact on the wheat.

The research was conducted at four Manitoba diversification centre sites in 2023, and repeated in 2024 at two of them. In total, five site-years generated data on wheat and cover crop establishment.

Wheat: No penalty, even in drought

Across those site-years, including the dry 2023 season, wheat performance for all treatments matched the wheat-only control. Yield, protein and biomass remained unchanged.

“There was no impact on the wheat compared to just the wheat-only control,” Frey said. “Even in drought years, that impact on the wheat was not there.”

Cover crop establishment was variable, depending largely on moisture. Alfalfa tended to produce the strongest stands across sites. White clover thrived at most but not all locations. Some failures occurred in extremely dry plots and one herbicide misapplication.

Still, the legumes were consistently present, and that was a win.

“Once it’s there, you have options,” Frey said. “It acts as that nutrient bank. You’re injecting nitrogen into the system.”

Weed biomass data is still being processed, but Frey noted the cover crop appeared to help suppress weed pressure.

Canola: management issues and moisture limits

The second half of the study aimed to let the legumes overwinter, then manage the biomass in spring and seed canola into it.

The same cover crop treatments were carried into the canola phase, using Clearfield canola so the biomass could be terminated chemically in early spring before seeding. The goal was to control the legumes, then evaluate how canola would establish and perform in the residue.

Here, the system stumbled. Cold, wet conditions at some sites delayed canola emergence, leaving a narrow spray window. The cover crop got ahead.

Arborg was the only site to produce a canola harvest, but even there, it wasn’t great.

“I wouldn’t claim it was an amazing canola yield by any means,” Frey admitted.

She repeated the phase this year at Roblin using mowing and Liberty Link canola. That mechanical approach showed better early establishment, but data isn’t yet available.

Unlike the wheat phase, moisture appeared to be the limiting factor in canola, which speaks directly to one of the main reasons Prairie farmers hesitate to try cover crops in the first place: water competition with the cash crop.

Moisture was also front and centre in related work by Manitoba Agriculture cereals specialist Anne Kirk. She designed her winter wheat trial to closely follow Frey’s approach, and the two researchers stayed in contact as the projects progressed.

Kirk ran her trial at Arborg using the same legume treatments seeded with winter wheat, adding a spring broadcast treatment as well. The biggest contrast between the wheat and canola phases came down to soil moisture.

She explained that canola has small seeds and requires a moist, firm seedbed. Deep-rooted legumes took the limited moisture first, both in fall and again before spring seeding.

“The big story here would be moisture,” she told the field day crowd. “The canola was seeded, and it just sat in the ground for a very long time because the moisture was quite low,” Kirk said.

Overall, while the wheat phase offers a promising path forward, the canola side of the system still needs work.

Lessons for today

The wheat phase did exactly what Prairie farmers have long hoped for: it established cover crops without sacrificing yield or quality. That opens new possibilities for integrating legumes while managing risk.

“We can pull this off without taking a hit economically,” said Frey.

Still, no one should expect lush forage under the wheat canopy, nor rush to seed canola into living legume sod without a refined management plan.

“If your goal is an amazing forage field, then don’t do it my way,” Frey said, but added that it could be helpful for some mixed farms. “It might be just enough to give you that week or two in the spring that you need before turning them out onto your regular pasture.”

Next steps

Understanding how much nitrogen the legumes contribute to a following crop was one of the main goals of phase two. Frey collected plenty of nitrogen data, but the canola struggled to establish well enough for her to draw clear conclusions from it — at least for now.

“What I don’t have yet is the story behind it,” Frey said of her nitrogen data.

Both projects will continue refining biomass control and evaluating the right crop following wheat.

But on the wheat side, the message is already clear: cover-cropping legumes can work here.

“We have a really unpredictable spring and fall,” Frey said. “Seeding together gives that cover crop access to the moisture and to the heat when it’s actually there.”

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Nearly all major crops have finished combining, with 37 per cent of Manitoba’s sunflowers finished, plus 71 per cent of grain corn and small amounts of soybeans and potatoes left to do.

Manitoba Ag also reported most of the fall fertilizer applications have wrapped up. As well, the planting of winter wheat and fall rye benefitted from warm fall temperatures and sufficient soil moisture levels, giving a good start to the 2026 crop.

Yields above average

The report placed this year’s winter wheat yields at 50 to 90 bushels per acre and fall rye at 60 to 110 bu./ac. with some instances of fields hitting 135.

Yields for the spring cereals ranged from 50 to 90 bu./ac. for wheat, with good quality and protein levels of 13.5 to 14.5 per cent. Although some later planted spring cereals did not fare as well due to wet conditions. Oats reaped 80 to 120 bu./ac. with barley at 80 to 110.

Corn yields varied, depending on the amount of rain received. Areas with limited rainfall saw 90 to 120 bu./ac. while those areas with timely rain had 130 to 150.

Among the oilseeds, canola yields were 30 to 60 bu./ac., flax at 15 to 35 and soybeans at 30 to 50. Sunflower yields are above normal across most of the province, but below normal in the Interlake.

The pea harvest registered at 30 to 70 bu./ac.

As for forages, the late season precipitation helped to extend pasture grazing. While hay yields were average, forage quality varied due to wet conditions. That was also the case with corn silage yields but greenfeed and cereal sileage were near average.

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